1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable type label applying apparatus for delaminating printed labels, which are temporarily adhered in series to a web of backing paper, and for applying the labels to articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For applying labels of the above-specified type in a supermarket, or the like, a portable type label printing and applying machine which is usually called a hand labeler is used. The hand labeler is comprised of: a holding unit for holding a rolled up composite label web, which web is comprised of unprinted labels temporarily adhered in series to their backing paper web; a printing unit for printing the labels; a feed unit for feeding the label web; and a delaminating unit for delaminating the printed labels from the backing paper of that composite label web to feed the labels out of the hand labeler. Thus, the printing, feeding and delaminating operations are manually performed, and the delaminated labels are applied by adhering them to articles.
This hand labeler is used for applying the printed labels to goods, mainly at a sales counter at which the goods are displayed. Printing and applying of the bar codes for POS systems have spread in recent years. However, some problems arise.
1. Since the printed bar codes are read out by means of an optical reader, strict accuracy is required for the widths and spacings of those bar codes. However, the type of simplified printing head that is mounted in a hand labeler might fail to accurately print bar codes due to constructional errors or due to excessive or insufficient ink being appled to the surfaces of the types by means of an ink roller. As a result, printed bar codes on labels are frequently incorrectly read out by optical readers.
2. A printing head for printing bar codes is necessarily larger than a printing head for printing human readable characters, due to the size relationship of the standardized bar codes. As a result, the size and weight of bar code printing hand labelers are so enlarged as to make the hand labeler difficult to handle and as to increase the fatigue of the operator.
3. Check digits are required for the bar codes. It is, however, difficult for a hand labeler to have the function of automatically calculating check digits because of the restrictions on its size and construction. Therefore, the check digits must be separately calculated, one by one, and then be set in the printing head.
In view of the aforementioned problems with bar code printing hand labelers, there is the practice in which after the composite label web is printed by means of a desk type printer, the printed labels are manually peeled one by one from the backing paper of the composite label web and are applied to goods. However, this manual method remarkably reduces the label applying speed and this deteriorates the working efficiency. Further, the prints on the label surfaces are rubbed during the label applications by the finger tips, so that they become obscure. Therefore, an apparatus which can accurately and efficiently print and apply bar code labels is desired.